Star Wars and Totalitarianism/WWII

 

Most of us Star Wars nerds know that it is, in part, based off of real events – including WWII.  The book, Star Wars and History, gives great insight to those unfamiliar with these ideas.  (while on the topic, I would also suggest buying Star Wars Propaganda as an awesome resource that comes with posters.  Also – check out https://thirteenthfloor.us/ for some absolutely amazing photos incorporating WWII and Star Wars – I bought two sets for my classroom – I have my students compare them to the original photos and we discuss why we need to make sure our sources are credible).  Here are some resources for incorporating Star Wars into the classroom – I am not going to blog this time about my exact lesson plans, but more wanted to share some ideas.  I’d be happy to answer any questions and would be excited if anyone would be willing to share with me what they have used.

Image result for star wars WWIIImage result for star wars WWII

Cult of Personality – what a great intro to being a BLERD (https://historycomics.edublogs.org/2016/10/12/blerds-the-beauty-of-nerdism/)   ) and some great “historical” music I loved growing up.  We need to get past hero worship and see leaders for fallible people who are like you and I.

Speaking of propaganda… Important to point out the racism inherent in this clip as well.

I also have my students use the below Star Wars comic book earlier in the year to teach close reading skills.  As this comic is from the Storm Trooper point of view, they need to go through and pick out the evidence that is given in the comic.  They then write an argumentative based essay on this evidence to answer the prompt – are Storm Troopers good or evil?  -We have had some fascinating discussions in the classroom based on individual student interpretations of the source material.  It is a great lesson to teach skills apart from content – often difficult to do in a content rich course like social studies.  Again, I’d be happy to share more and would be happy to see any suggestions you may have as well. (Issue #21).

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7 thoughts on “Star Wars and Totalitarianism/WWII

  1. Just managed to come across your post by accident and approaching WWII from this direction intrigues me. I’m curious to see your lesson plans on this and maybe a little more detail on the Stormtrooper comic.

    I already utilize Maus as an alternate way to portray World War II events and I’ve used the Disney cartoon and Golden Age comics to show propaganda connections. I’ve always known about the parallels between the Empire and Nazi Germany, but have never put the time in to really try and plan something out in detail using Star Wars to teach it. I’m curious to see what you’ve come up with.

    You can email me at lankford007@verizon.net if you like. This is really interesting.

  2. This looks really interesting. I would also live to see the lesson plans for more detail on how you implement this.

  3. As others have posted recently I would love to see the close read and persuasive essay writing that you used for the Star Wars #21.

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